Director, Marketing

Title: Director, Marketing

Schedule Format - Location: Hybrid - San Francisco

Pay Information- Salary: $125,547 - $156,934

Position Summary

KQED is one of the largest public media organizations in the country — and increasingly, one of the most digital, reaching Bay Area audiences through streaming, apps, podcasts, social, and web alongside our roots in TV and radio. We’re hiring a Marketing Director to lead the next phase of that digital growth, taking the foundation we’ve built to a new level of scale and sophistication.

You’ll run paid campaigns across a fast-expanding mix of channels and offerings, build the systems and reporting rigor to scale them, and lead go‑to‑market strategy and media for KQED’s first brand campaign in a decade. It’s a highly visible role that sits at the center of how KQED connects with new and younger audiences. You’ll lead, develop and set direction for a small and mighty team and help shape what marketing at KQED looks like for years to come.

KQED envisions a public media organization with a culture that centers on human dignity, equity, and belonging. This will enable us to better serve and reflect the Bay Area through diverse and inclusive storytelling.

We value the contributions of marginalized people in society — including Black, Indigenous, and all people of color, people with disabilities, and LGBTQIA+ people — and we believe that these communities must be centered in the work we do, and we strongly encourage members of these communities to apply.

KQED Code of Ethics

The mission that drives us:

KQED provide citizens of Northern California with a community-supported alternative to commercial media. We provide citizens with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions; convene community dialogue; bring the arts to everyone and engage audiences to share their stories. We help students and teachers thrive in 21st-century classrooms, and take people of all ages on journeys of exploration- exposing them to new people, places and ideas.

This role will work hybrid between working in KQED's newly renovated headquarters and working remotely.

Essential Functions

• Oversee both brand and performance media and campaign activation — from performance campaigns promoting KQED offerings on owned and third-party platforms, to go‑to‑market strategy and media for KQED's first brand campaign in a decade.
• Set annual strategic and operational plans for marketing — objectives, success metrics, resourcing, budget, and prioritization — across a portfolio that spans reach, acquisition, engagement, and retention.
• Design and build scalable marketing systems, workflows, and infrastructure (processes, tooling, briefing and reporting frameworks) that let the team run a growing volume and complexity of campaigns.
• Own the strategic relationship with KQED’s media agency — overseeing RFPs, contracts, briefs, and overall media strategy.
• Design audience journeys and go‑to‑market models for new KQED priorities and programs.
• Set strategic direction for growth campaign creative and messaging — briefing and directing both in‑house creative and outside agencies. Partner with the brand team on brand campaign creative.
• Own how success is measured across the portfolio — ensuring every campaign is tracked, reported on, and optimized, and that in‑depth post‑mortems showcase key insights and learnings to shape where KQED marketing invests and grows next.
• Build relationships with local media partners to maximize trade and added value inventory and unique marketing opportunities.
• Collaborate with editorial teams (digital video, live events, podcasts, news) to design strategies that drive discovery and engagement with KQED content and experiences.
• Partner with Product on growth strategies for KQED’s website and app to maximize the effectiveness of paid advertising strategies and their measurement.
• Partner with the Audience Intelligence team to deepen audience understanding across the portfolio and ensure the efficacy of paid campaigns.
• Drive innovation across marketing, remaining current on new technologies, platforms, and best practices, and determining what’s worth scaling.

Knowledge/Experience Required

• 7–10 years of experience in marketing and paid advertising, including both brand and performance, with experience operating at both a strategic and hands‑on level.
• Deep media expertise including but not limited to digital (social, programmatic, search, YouTube, CTV, etc.) and traditional (out of home, radio) channels to drive upper, mid, and lower funnel KPIs.
• Demonstrated experience building or scaling marketing systems, workflows, or team structures — not just running campaigns within an existing structure.
• Proven ownership of measurement and reporting for a marketing portfolio — setting KPIs, running post‑mortems, and using data to shape future strategy.
• Proven success leading through influence in a highly cross‑functional organization — aligning Product, editorial, and social teams around shared priorities, and generating enthusiasm and buy‑in for ideas and plans across a complex org.
• Experience briefing and directing creative development — with both in‑house teams and outside agencies — and strong judgment about what creative and messaging a campaign needs to succeed.
• A successful history of owning, developing, and communicating long‑term strategies for growing reach, acquisition, engagement, and retention across a portfolio of channels.
• Experience managing and empowering a team to be scrappy, nimble and data‑driven.
• Comfort with ambiguity and the ability to build and maintain structure and core priorities while navigating inbound requests.

Knowledge/Experience Desired

• Experience running both brand and performance media in concert.
• Experience driving ‘tune‑in’ for content across earned and 3rd party platforms.
• A sharp eye for design and aesthetics, at both the campaign and brand level.
• Familiarity with media agency management and AdTech/programmatic platforms (e.g., The Trade Desk, DSPs), for a deeper handle on the media side of the role.
• Passion for understanding audience behavior and tendencies across media types and platforms, including what drives retention and repeat engagement, not only acquisition.
• Interest in figuring out how marketing from the for‑profit world can work within the nonprofit framework.
• A deep interest in and appreciation for the public media mission and the Bay Area.